I did a Ceos run in my python, with more than double the cargo space since I last went there. It's the place where there are 2 Fed systems next to each other but 400ly from any others. The whole thing probably took me towards 4 hours but I made just over 40 million. If I do it once more I might buy another Python and finally do some serious mining. Or I could save up for a proper end game ship like the Anaconda.

I think I have 232 right now. You can go a bit higher in the Python but I also have a class 4 fuel scoop (not suitable for exploration but more than fine for this), Advanced discovery scanner and docking computer. You can get a little more by using a lesser scoop and removing the scanner and/or docking computer.

The thing is, when I went with the Asp with around 100 cargo space, you really need to go round and round a lot, trying to find the delivery missions that are for 2 to 6 units of cargo. This is to maximise your final trip home delivery profits. But with the Python, your constraint isn't the amount of cargo so much as the maximum number of missions you can have at once. You can only have 20 missions, which means that they are much easier to find since you can pick up a load of 12 tonne and even a couple of 16 tonne jobs and still not run out of space.

Of course going round and round trying to find 2 or 6 tonne missions isn't wasted time - you are earning money whilst completing dozens of Federation quests for rep and rank.

You can make your mission hunting go faster if you "mission log". Frowned upon by some in the community - basically, if you are in solo, then you can log out and back in to open play which refreshes the mission list. Then do it again for private group.

If you've got some time tonight (after GoT, obvs) or tomorrow, perhaps I can SharePlay you my hunt for these planet scan mission things, and you can point out in 10 seconds what I'm doing wrong and why I'm an idiot.

If you've got some time tonight (after GoT, obvs) or tomorrow, perhaps I can SharePlay you my hunt for these planet scan mission things, and you can point out in 10 seconds what I'm doing wrong and why I'm an idiot.

I think I get 11.5 million for that (rising once we hit tier , which is fine, but because of how slow/bad I am and especially because of the couple of deaths early on, I don't think the payout is all that compared to the efficient money making methods I have elsewhere.

Way more fun though!

Then I switched sides - damn it was hard. Got 1 kill for the minimum payout. Should cover my repair costs..

I notice that I'm really good at taking down shields. Like, REALLY good, in my Vulture. But the hull is a completely different story. I switched my other weapon from frag cannon to multi cannon and I think it's a little better. Maybe. Still takes about 10 times as long as the shields. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Got my 2nd engineer to max rank. He does power distributors and pulse lasers.

It seems super easy to get them to max rank if you don't really care what you are upgrading (which you don't because really you want max upgrades on the stuff you actually use). But Jesus it seems hard to find the materials if you actually want specific rank 5 upgrades. Inara seems an excellent source for this. Lists all the engineers, how to unlock them, all their recipes and where to find the ingredients.

There was just 1 thing I needed - apparently you get it by blowing up cargo ships and gathering the remains. The site said higher chance to drop in Low Security systems but screw that, I thought, I'll just go to an anarchy system so that I don't get any fines or security service ships attacking me. Blew up about 20 ships (most of them weren't cargo ships to be fair) and got precisely zero of the stuff I needed. I guess I'll try a Low Sec system after all.

I haven't played for 2 days, and I'm not in tonight, and I'm not sure about Thursday, then I'm on holiday for a week. I might as well start from scratch! I'll have no clue how to do anything when I get back!

Grats on the Engineers stuff. I wouldn't even know where to start. Have you hired any crew?

It's pretty easy to start on Engineers because you have 5 visible by default and they all tell you what you need to do to unlock them. The ones I've unlocked, 1 was "pay me 500k". One was "use 5 different black markets". One was "bring me 3 x Scoosomething relics" (and tells you where to buy them). 2 I remember but haven't unlocked yet are "use 50 commodity markets" (I haven't yet.) and "mine 500 tonnes of stuff" (I haven't anywhere near.).

When you get an engineer to rank 3 (which seems super easy) then it unlocks a new engineer. Or rather, it makes a new engineer visible so you can work to unlock it. I think there are 30 in total.

I'm back up to ~65 million. If I do one more Ceos run I could take my pick of a Type-9 cargo ship with ~500 capacity, or I might even buy a 2nd Python and make it a miner.

Actually, the cargo ship I could probably buy already because I would obviously sell my current one. Hmm. I'll check to see if there are any good trade routes currently.